CHRIS analyses England's dismal defeat to Uruguay and scrutinises the defensive pairing of Cahill and Jagielka.

IF John Terry had been at the World Cup with England they’d be in a position to qualify for the latter stages.

There you go, I’ve said it.

Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it’s easy to call something after the event.

But even before the tournament started in Brazil, my fear for Roy Hodgson was the centre-back pairing of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka.

And unfortunately, I was proved right on Thursday night when Uruguay beat us 2-1 and all but ended England’s qualification hopes.

The defending for Luis Suarez’s second goal was nothing short of criminal.

But I’m convinced that had Terry been there he would have attacked the initial kick-out, taken responsibilty and stopped the danger.

England missed a trick by not taking Terry.

At times managers have to bite the bullet and Roy should have taken him to Brazil, irrespective of what has gone on between them in the past.

Cahill and Jagielka are both good individual players but at that level teams can create chances against them.

England have lacked a leader at the back and a bit of organisation. Terry would have given them that.

Roy will be furious about the manner in which they lost that second goal.

It was such poor defending and it was unnecessary because a draw wouldn’t have been a disaster for England going into the Costa Rica game.

When I was at Blackburn under Roy I remember the first session he ever did with the squad. It was on how not to get beat by one long ball.

It’s schoolboy stuff in many respects. And I don’t understand the criticism of Steven Gerrard for the Suarez goal which is totally unjustified.

It should not be Gerrard’s job to head long punts down the field. It was Jagielka’s job but he got stuck in two minds and caught in no-man’s land.

Reuters 2014

England's Joe Hart dives but fails to save a goal scored by a header from Uruguay's Luis Suarez as England's Phil Jagielka watches on

Okay, you can say he has made a poor decision. An honest mistake.

But what on earth was Cahill doing? I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking.

The most important thing to think about as a defender is always “what if?”. Where’s the danger?

He should have been round and snuffed it out but he gambled by stepping out and it looked to me like he was trying to play offside. That was an enormous mistake.

At any level – but especially at World Cup level – you can’t afford to do that.

For the first goal I totally disagreed with Lee Dixon on TV afterwards. I don’t know what on earth he was talking about but it was rubbish.

Dixon was talking about Jagielka stepping out. But the centre-half can’t risk doing that because Edinson Cavani checks back on to his right foot as Suarez was a few yards onside and it all happened so quickly.

It would have been suicidal defending. He was right to drop and try to deal with the Suarez run.

But Jagielka could maybe have opened his body out and got marginally tighter.

If anyone was to blame it was Leighton Baines who should have seen Suarez pulling off Jagielka and dealt with him by blocking his run or giving the Uruguayan striker nowhere to go.

The second goal was the killer blow and very avoidable. And here’s my point about Dixon saying Jagielka should step out for the first goal.

Cahill DID hold his line for the second goal and it was a massive error. General rule of thumb for centre-halves is always expect a mistake and go with the runner unless you are 100 per cent certain.

Cahill was lazy, Suarez razor sharp. At the top level you can’t switch off and when working out the best decision defenders should never take risks. Cahill saw Suarez and decided he was offside and did not expect the flick from Gerrard. Suarez expected the mistake.

That’s the margin and is the moment England’s World Cup dream ended.

To get nothing from two games isn’t good enough. No one expected England to win the World Cup but there were still high hopes going into it.

But with someone like Suarez around – even when he’s half fit – you can’t take anything for granted.

What a player he is. He’s a brilliant example to any young striker, in that he just gambles all day long.

He’s intelligent and the reason why he gets so many goals is that he never stops anticipating things.

That’s what he did for that second goal on Thursday night. Cahill switched off.

Compare that to England in the final third who didn’t really have any cutting edge.

Even the goal Wayne Rooney scored was a bit of a tackle cross – despite a well-worked build-up.

But they lacked that little bit of quality or incisive pass where it really mattered.

I’d have liked to see Adam Lallana start against Uruguay in place of Danny Welbeck.

Suarez is a level above what England have at the moment.

But to be fair he’s a level above what most teams in the world have got.

Even when he’s half fit he’s infectious and inspires those around him.

I’m not sure if you’d class it as a basic skill or not. But he sees pictures and keeps gambling throughout 90 minutes.

That shows he’s not lazy in his mind – or his legs – and it’s why he’s an example to other players.

How many other strikers in the World Cup would have ran in behind for that second goal against England?

He’s got great ability and can go past people. But it’s his drive and willingness to work that sets him apart from other top strikers.

Inevitably, Hodgson is now being asked if his future is on the line.

But I don’t see the point in Roy resigning. The players just haven’t performed for him in Brazil.